Drunk woman clawed parents

Liam Soutar

A woman attacked her parents after they discovered she had smuggled alcohol in the house, despite trying to overcome a drinking problem.

Suzanne Walton bit and clawed at her parents Margaret and James, who confronted her after smelling alcohol on her breath.

The 25-year-old, of no fixed address, narrowly avoided jail over the vicious incident, after appearing at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard how Walton had been living with her parents at their home in All Saints Grove, Hindley. They had been supporting her as she tried to win an almost decade-long battle with alcohol.

The incident unfolded in the morning, when her father needed to use the phone but could not find it.

Assuming it could be in his daughter’s room, he went upstairs to ask her, and immediately smelled alcohol in her breath.

She denied having had any drink, but Mr Walton immediately went downstairs to tell his wife. The confrontation prompted a flurry of verbal abuse, but things quickly turned violent.

When Mrs Walton went to retrieve the phone and a tablet computer which her daughter had also borrowed, she was clawed in the face and knocked on to the bed.

When Mr Walton rushed back upstairs to aid his wife, a tug of war ensued over the tablet. The defendant let go, and the tablet smacked James in the head.

She then began to hit her father in the head as he went to ground, throwing a flurry of punches and then biting him on the arm. She later scratched at his face as he attempted to get away from the fracas.

After police arrived, Walton admitted having drunk wine the night before, but could not remember assaulting her parents, who were in the courtroom during proceedings.

Her solicitor Bob Toppin told the court: "Her parents are not here to condemn her, they are here to support her.

"She is a very nice lady who suddenly becomes Mrs Hyde after a drink."

She was given 12 weeks custody, suspended for 18 months. She must also pay £235 in costs.

Justices told Walton: "You need to thank your parents for this. It it weren’t for them being in court supporting you today, you would probably be going to jail."